Code and data for the paper Early evidence for the safety of certain COVID-19 vaccines using empirical Bayesian modeling from VAERS.
The preprint for this paper is now available here on medRxiv.
The advent of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 ushered in an unprecedented global response to COVID-19, with the largest and most ambitious mass vaccination campaign in human history. The scale of this effort means that safety signals suggesting adverse effects may only be detectable using passive reporting. This paper examines reports to the CDC/FDA's VAERS system in the first six months of 2021, using an empirical Bayesian model with a gamma Poisson shrinker to identify potential safety signals from COVID-19 vaccines currently on the U.S. market. Based on this preliminary data, it is concluded that the COVID-19 vaccine's safety significantly exceeds that of previously marketed vaccines, and other than a known risk of thrombotic events, no safety signals of concern emerge.
- For main results, the notebook's here.
- The draft paper is here.